midterm project

Midterm Project (due 3/28)

You are required to submit a modest writing assignment midway through this course, and you may choose between two very different projects:

  • an encyclopedia entry on some aspect of Faulkner's fictional Yoknapatawpha County, or
  • a review of a recent scholarly book on Faulkner.

What follows is a brief description of both choices:

Yoknapedia Entry:

The first option is best for those who have a somewhat non-scholarly or para-scholarly orientation, for example, creative writers or aspiring teachers with interests in digital pedagogy and K-12 composition.

Past students and I have built an encyclopedic resource to Faulkner's work that "maps," if you will, the County for readers. There are a few hundred persons, places, things, and ideas elucidated there, and, in this project, you can add to the wealth with work that is scholarly in orientation but aims at a broader audience and looser form than most scholarly work in literature. This work could feed into a more substantive "long" entry for your final project.

Here's how:

  1. Choose a topic: there is a list of entries via this page in a spreadsheet. There are entries that have been written already by other studnets and ideas for new entries. Take an unused idea, or just make sure your original idea hasn't been already written.
  2. Think about scale: for this project, you are required to write several "short" entries, two "medium" entries, or one "long" entry. A guide to how to write entries at each of these scales is here. You will produce about 1500-2000 words in all, so a "long" entry will be rather short (and you might choose to rework it at greater length for your final), the "medium" entries will be in the 500-1000 word range, and the "short" entries will probably fall short of the word count, but make sure you do between 3 and 5. I'm open to other combinations of short/medium/long, depending on your interests.
  3. Research and write: use the Zotero bibliography and the other research resources on this site. You might also look at some exemplary entries: for good "medium" entries, check out Matthew Adler's take on Benjy from TSAF or Mary Rubi's treatment of Joe Christmas from LIA.
  4. Submit: I will handle the uploading process. You will give me your work via this form. Be sure to follow the instructions and include any images or other media objects that should accompany your entries.

Book Review:

The second option is more suited to those primarily interested in literary criticism, and/or those who plan to write a research paper for their final project. You will read a "monograph," a scholarly work aimed at a specialized audience of academics, and you will review it for peers, giving a summary of its main argument and an evaluation of its strengths and weaknesses. Here are the steps:

  1. Find something appropriate to review. You will need a book, not an article, and the book should be scholarly in nature, published by a university press (U Press of Mississippi, Duke U Press, etc.). I'm willing to consider a review of a biography or "edited volume" (collection of essays by various authors) but urge you to aim for a single-authored monograph, since the task will be more manageable that way. Sort through the Zotero bibliography, search CUNYs libraries, and especially the collections of e-books via ProQuest, etc.
  2. Read it (duh). But note that it's very possible (ahem) not to read every page of a monograph, yet still write an excellent review. The key is to read the introduction very carefully to glean the main argument and the "critical conversation" that the author is entering, and then to choose a chapter or two that look especially interesting or central. Your review, then, will hone in on that/those chapter(s) to illustrate the argument as a whole.
  3. Write your review. Feel free to use these two as examples: the first is a short review of a single monograph, whereas the second is a somewhat longer review of multiple texts. In any case, pay attention to the form: how the authors cut to the chase and combine respectful summary with more critical evaluation of the argument. You will write about 1000-1500 words: discipline yourself to keep it at that length.

Regardless of what you choose, your project is due 3/28